Minsk Metro Temporally Closes Twelve Station Ahead Of Protest Rally

MINSK (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 25th October, 2020) Twelve subway stations in the Belarusian capital will be temporally closed on Sunday because of another large-scale unauthorized protest rally set for later in the day.

"At 11:30 GMT, stations Ploshchad Lenina, Oktyabrskaya, Ploshchad Pobedy, Ploshchad Yakuba Kolasa, Akademiya nauk, Park Chelyuskintsev, Pervomayskaya, Kupalovskaya, Nemiga, Frunzenskaya, Molodozhnaya and Pushkinskaya will be closed for the entry and exit," the Minsk Metro said on Telegram.

The Minsk Metro added that trains will pass these stations without a stop.

The police, internal military troops and OMON Special Task Force have been arriving at the center of Minsk since morning.

This Sunday marks the termination of a 13-days ultimatum, which was put forward on October 13 by ex-presidential candidate Svetlana Tikhanovskaya to President Alexander Lukashenko. Tikhanovskaya warned that the opposition would start a nationwide strike on October 26, if Lukashenko did not resign.

Mass opposition protests have been ongoing in Belarus since the August 9 presidential election in which the incumbent leader, Alexander Lukashenko, secured his sixth consecutive term. The opposition has refused to recognize the official results and continues regular rallies.